I will pick 2 results today at Zagreb, with main focus on the young talents to progress into semis. Marin Cilic talent was obvious for me even before Australian Open and US Open where he started to build himself a reputation of the good player. I saw him earlier in the Davis Cup matches against USA, where he beaten Mardy Fish 3:2 and James Blake 3:1. Since then he only was progressing – win over Andy Murray at US Open, final in Beijing (lost to Djokovic), final in Vienna (lost to Melzer), win in Chennai (def.Wawrinka) and finally semifinal at the Australian Open, where he lost to Andy Murray. I had already posted a pick of his easy win at blogabet in Zagreb, but this time he will face tough task of defeating another Croatian, Ivo Karlovic. Ivo doesnt’ need presentation, everybody knows how tough is he to break, with his monster serve and quick hands at the net. He is in good form, he is in home town, he will be hard to beat. I predict an over 23 or over23,5 games in this match, with at least one tiebreak in it.

Another pick will go for the young talent from Slovakia. I like this young tennis player, he tends to play descent tennis, especially on hardcourts. His last year record on hardcourts was 26-8 on outdoor and 10-3 on indoor hards… Even taking into account the fact that it was mainly in the minor tournaments, this is still impressive. Lacko haven’t competed on the major events last year, I guess he tried to gain some self-belief in his strengths. This year he started with the majors and scored some wins over Yen-Hsun Lu, Robby Ginepri, Leonardo Mayer and finally here against Denis Istomin and Ivan Ljubicic. Now he faces pretty mediocre player, Petzschner who’s form and style of play completely fits for Lacko. I think Lacko will win this. Overs also an option here.